The Centrality of the Gospel

Introduction

Much is said in our time about freedom.

Some people in America believe that freedom means doing whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it, never realizing that worldview leads to bondage.

Political parties talk often about how their party uniquely offers people real American freedom, if we would just vote for them. Of course, this also easily becomes bondage.

Many educated people today hold to the idea of intellectual freedom, particularly in our colleges and universities, meaning they are free from espousing traditional views when it comes to morality and ethics. And yet, they are not truly intellectually free, as a person is typically only allowed to espouse politically correct views and/or progressivism in order to maintain their station.

The point being, much of what is believed to be freedom today actually leads to different forms of bondage, ironically.

Unfortunately, for a great number of people, religious faith today offers little to no real freedom. This, in part, is because many don’t understand what spiritual freedom really is. Thankfully, as followers of Jesus, we have the book of Galatians to help us there.

Galatians isn’t a book of political freedom, social freedom, or intellectual freedom. It’s a book laser focused on the most important freedom of all: spiritual freedom.

Specifically, the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, who has set us free from the bondage of sin and eternal death.

The twin theme of the book, to go along with freedom is grace through faith. Specifically, that freedom is ours by God’s grace extended to sinners and received by faith.

Key verse of the book and this study:

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

This morning we will begin a three month study through the book of Galatians.

As we study this amazing letter together we will be challenged garner a better understanding of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has set us free from spiritual bondage; how the call to faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is a person’s real hope; and how the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer to develop the moral and ethical behaviors of those of us who follow Christ.

Body: Galatians 1:1-10

As you read through the book of Galatians, you will immediately notice that the churches of the region of Galatia were in trouble.

(Map) Galatia was a large area in what is today known as Turkey. It was the location of Paul’s First Missionary Journey, where he started churches in Antioch in Pisidia, Lystra, Derbe and Iconium.

The churches were in trouble because someone or a group of people were coming in after Paul and teaching the believers that Paul had made them, in essence, half-Christians.

They caused the people to question Paul’s credentials as an apostle and therefore the message that Paul preached.

They argued that Jesus came in order to give people the power to obey the OT Law. Essentially, salvation was by faith in Christ and by adherence to the Law.

Specifically, these people, known as the Judaizers, taught that adherence to the Law required that the people would observe the Jewish food laws, celebrate the Jewish holy days, and become circumcised. This last requirement, obviously, was a particularly difficult one as not a lot of a grown men are going to sign up for that, and there wasn’t an abundance of people in Asia Minor who could do it safely.

Most importantly, the churches were facing the grave danger of believing that salvation was about their adherence to certain religious tenants, not grace alone through faith alone.

Why was this such a grave danger? (This is important for us to understand, because while we don’t have modern Judaizers, we are very prone to the same legalistic mindset as people today.)

Because the focus of salvation shifts from Christ’s death, burial and resurrection to our ability and/or inability to earn God’s favor.

When our faith becomes about performance, then we:

Presume that God owes us something because of our good works;

Diminish the power of Jesus completed work on the cross;

Cause many to turn away from the faith because of their inability to earn grace;

Set unbiblical standards on people that are based on opinions and interpretations, not the clear teaching of Scripture.

Clearly, this was a very dangerous time for these churches. And thus, Paul writes this very pastoral letter with the hope of setting them back on the right course.

Verses 1-2

Paul, an apostle...

Paul begins by establishing the fact that he was called by Christ Jesus Himself to apostleship.

Later in this letter Paul will, once again, tell his story of his former life as a persecutor of church and how Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and changed everything for him.

Verses 3-5

Grace to you and peace...

Paul often begins his letters with this greeting, but here it is particularly important. It was grace that would give them the peace they were lacking right now.

And that grace and peace only comes through God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice within the first few sentences Paul gets right to the Gospel. This is because they needed to reestablish the Gospel as central to their faith.

So, he reminds them what they already knew: Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the bondage of sin and death.

Throughout this letter, Paul will bring everything back to the Gospel, as Gospel centrality was necessary for the churches to get back on track.

Verses 6-9

Typically in his letters, Paul has words of encouragement for those he is writing to. But there are none here. He gets right into the matter at hand.

Paul is shocked that so soon after his time with them that they are turning away from the Gospel he preached an to another gospel…a false gospel at that!

He doesn’t go into detail in these first verses as to the trouble, but we will see it throughout this letter. We also see it is Acts 15.

Acts 15:1 ESV

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

This would lead to the famous Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, in which it was determined that Gentiles did not need to follow the Jewish OT Laws in order to be saved.

We don’t know if these “who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” came before the Jerusalem Council or after.

Regardless, Paul uses some of his strongest language anywhere to speak against the teachings of the Judaizers:

deserting; different gospel; trouble you; distort the gospel of Christ; and even twice emphasizes that anyone who preaches a different gospel should be accursed! (i.e. that they would be cursed by God)

In using such strong language Paul wants to make it abundantly clear that they are being led astray to a path that will eventually lead to apostasy, which is a turning away from the faith entirely.

Paul cares too much about those people to sit back idly and watch that happen without speaking up.

Verse 10

Paul recognizes that what he is saying isn’t going to be popular.

But, Paul understands that when it comes to people turning away from the true Gospel of Christ, pleasing man in meaningless.

In fact, if he set out to please people he wouldn’t be a servant of Christ at all!

So, he will admonish and warn them in the strongest language he could because the danger they found themselves in was so grave.

Key Take-Away

The greatest danger the church will ever face is the loss of the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As I mentioned earlier, we don’t have many within the Western church today who could be classified as Judaizers. However, the church is facing at least two grave dangers that are addressed in this letter: the loss of Gospel centrality and legalism. Both will be addressed on multiple occasions throughout this series, but legalism is often a result of the loss of Gospel centrality, so we will begin there.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ must be the central purpose of a church.

Today I see this at risk in at least two different ways within the church:

When we begin to believe that the main focus of the church is anything other than the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Confession Time: For many years of my Christian walk I believed that the church existed to take care of people, to offer good, biblical moral and ethical principals for life, to offer a place for Christian people to feel a sense of community and belonging.

There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but they are secondary to and a result of the church’s primary purpose: to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

See, my issue was that I believed that the proclamation of the Gospel just meant evangelism. I wasn’t against evangelism, per se, but it did strike me as a roundabout way to simply maintain the organization of the church’s numbers and finances. Thus, I thought the evangelistic push was more about trying to grow churches than it was anything else. So, when would hear that the primary purpose of the church was to proclaim the Gospel, that what I thought it meant, so I resisted it.

But, the proclamation of the Gospel means so much more!

When we sing songs of praise and worship, we proclaim the Gospel’s victory and power. When we give sacrificially we proclaim the Gospel’s sufficiency and provision in our lives. When we study God’s Word together we see the implications of the Gospel in all areas of our lives. When we fellowship together we are unified because through the Gospel Jesus has made us one body; His body. When we pray for one another, we can do so in confidence knowing that the Gospel assures us that God the Son is our constant advocate in glory.

In short, everything we do as God’s people is affected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And therefore, the Gospel must be central to all we do as the church.

We must resist any other “gospel” that would alter the church’s focus from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Throughout this series we will get more specific about other “gospels” of our time.

But, for now, we must be aware of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and then resist anything that would add to it.

There’s an old saying, Jesus + Anything Else = Nothing. Or, a modern version is Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

When teaching about cults and other religions I often use a framework that one of my teachers shared with me to determine if a religious group is a cult:

Do they add to the Scriptures?

Do they subtract from the person and work of Christ?

Do they multiply the requirements for salvation?

Do they divide the church with exclusive claims?

Within the church, we often see that the loss of Gospel centrality leads to legalism, which shares some of the same characteristics:

They add to the requirements for right standing before God.

They subtract for the message of grace alone through faith alone by suggesting that grace isn’t enough.

They multiply the requirements for true followship, typically by using themselves as the standard for walking right with the Lord.

They divide the church with claims that only those who believe everything they believe within the church are walking with the Lord.

All this can take a church’s eyes off of the Gospel and put them elsewhere.

Standing firm on the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will not necessarily please people. So be it!

When we say that the Gospel alone is the central purpose of the church, not everyone will like it. In fact, we will meet resistance.

One of the best ministry books I’ve read in the last ten years is Edward Welch’s book, When People are Big and God is Small. The premise of the book is that we cannot allow our desire to please people to overwhelm our desire to please God, and yet we often do just that.

I can readily admit that this has always been a huge struggle of mine. I want people to like me; but even more so, I want the people I care about and am responsible for to be pleased with me. Am I alone in this?

On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, the issues come when our main motivation is people pleasing (which happens easily) and when we seek people’s approval instead of God’s (which also happens easily).

How do we fight against this?

Commit to being a servant of Christ primarily...

Make Gospel centrality the focus of your life...

Recognize where you are most vulnerable to people pleasing...

Don’t demand that other people please you...

The greatest danger the church will ever face is the loss of the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.